BABBLELOT - the last few days of the athletics have been superb, and team US have been outstanding! So many athletes have not only won the Gold, but also beaten previous records in their sport. A truly wonderful display of excellence.And on this, the last day, the US are well ahead on the total medals won & the gold medals won. Congratulations to them.

Just a few tributes, there are so mant great athletes in team US & this is just a sample, because I happened to like the pictures!! :

The Jamaicans were impressive, weren't they. For a small relatively less well off country, they have produced excellent athletes, and had another great Olympics.

One of my favourites this Olympics is Mo Farah. He won his second gold in style.

Mo Farah wins double gold with thrilling 5000 metres victory

Britain's Mo Farah tonight won his second gold medal of London 2012 with a thrilling victory in the 5,000 metres on the final night of athletics action.

Seven days after claiming Britain's third gold in the space of 45 minutes on 'Super Saturday' in the 10,000m, Farah produced another brilliant performance to complete the long-distance double.

Roared on by a capacity 80,000-strong crowd, Farah hit the front with 700m remaining and was never headed, covering the last lap in under 53 seconds to hold off Ethiopia's Dejen Gebremeskel to win in 13 minutes and 41.66 seconds. Thomas Longosiwa of Kenya claimed bronze.

Just five men in Olympic history had previously taken the 5,000m and 10,000m titles at the same Games - Emil Zatopek of the old Czechoslovakia in 1952, Vladimir Kuts of the USSR in 1956, Finland's Lasse Viren in 1972 and 1976, Miruts Yifter of Ethiopia in 1980 and Kenenisa Bekele, also of Ethiopia, at Beijing four years ago.

Farah's victory also meant Britain have won four track and field golds for only the third time since the Second World War, matching the haul from Tokyo in 1964 and Moscow in 1980.

Farah had looked understandably tired in the heats on Wednesday, after which Gebremeskel acknowledged that running a fast race might be the only way to deny Farah victory.

However, if that was the plan it was curiously ignored as the 15-strong field set out at an incredibly slow pace - with more than one lap taking 73 seconds - 20 more than Farah's closing lap to win the 10,000m.

It took until the midway point of the race for the pace to be wound up but Farah was able to respond and move up to second behind Gebremeskel with three laps to go.

With 700m remaining the 29-year-old hit the front and still led at the bell, at which point he crucially refused to give up his prime position on the inside and accelerated again to stay ahead of the pack.

Gebremeskel, the fastest man in the world this year, briefly closed on Farah down the home straight, but the home favourite was not to be denied a fabulous triumph - and even had the energy to celebrate with a few sit-ups on the track.

Farah said on BBC1: "It's just unbelievable.

"The American guy (Galen Rupp) tried to come past me, but I knew I just had to hold on to it.

"I had great support from the crowd. It means a lot to me."

He was watched by wife Tania, pregnant with twins due imminently, and daughter Rihanna.

"Those two medals are to my two girls that are coming. They're not born yet hopefully," Farah said.

"They're twins so there's one for each. They could arrive any day."

As for his short-term future on the track, Farah said: "I don't know what's going on. I'm taking one race at a time.

"The Olympics doesn't come round often. It's all worked out well.

"I'm just amazed. Two gold medals - who would have thought that?

"I just want to thank everyone who's supported me.

"All my coaches from previous years and all the people who've been involved in my life.

"I can't thank everybody enough.

"I want to say particularly to my wife, with her carrying twins, it hasn't been easy but I didn't want to know about it.

"If anything happens she promised she wouldn't let me know so I'm glad it all worked out well."

He added: "It's been a long journey grafting and grafting, but anything is possible."

Russia's Mariya Savinova then added Olympic gold to her world title with a commanding victory in the 800m in a season's best and world-leading time of 1:56.19.

America's Alysia Johnson Montano led the field through the bell before defending champion Pamela Jelimo hit the front, the Kenyan leading around the top bend but then fading badly down the home straight.

Savinova timed her run to perfection and eased away to finish over a second ahead of the fast-finishing former world champion Caster Semenya, with Jelimo relegated to fourth on the line by Russia's Ekaterina Poistogova.

Farah's training partner Rupp, who took silver in the 10,000m but finished seventh tonight, said: "Everybody's gunning for him and looking for ways to beat him and I think to be able to have such a great two races in front of your home fans, it's huge.

"There's obviously a lot of pressure on him and he did a great job of handling it and just executed better than anybody else."

Trinidad's Keshorn Walcott was the surprise winner of the men's javelin title, the 19-year-old claiming gold by just seven centimetres from Ukraine's Oleksandr Pyatnytsya.

Walcott's second-round throw of 84.58m proved good enough for victory, with Pyatnytsya throwing 84.51m in the third round.

Finland's Antti Ruuskanen claimed the bronze medal with a throw of 84.12m in the fifth round.

Russia's Anna Chicherova claimed high jump gold with a commanding performance, the 30-year-old the only woman to clear 2.05m.

Chicherova had cleared all of her previous heights at the first attempt, and although she needed two attempts to clear 2.05m, that was more than enough after America's Brigetta Barrett and Russia's Svetlana Shkolina failed the same height.

Barrett claimed silver on countback having cleared 2.03m at the second attempt.

The most predictable and emphatic win of the night came in the women's 4x400m relay as the United States stormed to gold.

The quartet of DeeDee Trotter, Allyson Felix, Francena McCorory and Sanya Richards-Ross led from start to finish to beat Russia by almost three and a half seconds.

Jamaica claimed the bronze medal with Britain in fourth. ........................

Australia hasn't been doing well in the Olympics for a while. For a nation with a great sporting tradition, it is no doubt disappointing. But there have been some excellent wins. Sally Pearson's gold win will no doubt help lift team Australia, as well as the other 6 gold's & other medals won.

London 2012: Sally Pearson's dream comes true in 100m hurdles triumph

For an agonising moment no one knew who had won the women's 100m hurdles. On the other side of the world, millions of Australians leaned forward on the edge of their seats, waiting for the results to flash up on the screen. And at last they came: first, and the gold, to Sally Pearson, in an Olympic record of 12.35sec. It was only Australia's fourth gold of the Games. Pearson collapsed to the track, ecstatic. USA's Dawn Harper, the deposed champion, had the good grace to clap her hands in appreciation of her rival.

It was Harper's dip for the line that caused that all that discomfort down under. She had been a yard behind Pearson coming off the final hurdle, but closed as they came up to the line. She dipped, Pearson did not, and it almost cost the Australian. The gap between them was just 0.02. "When I crossed the line I thought, 'Darn it, I think I may have got her'," Harper said, "and then when I saw her collapse to the ground I thought, 'Darn it' again, 'she's happy, so she must have won'."

Harper was a little less polite about her USA rival Lolo Jones, whose good looks and blunt words attract an awful lot of attention. "I feel like I kind of shut some people up," she said. " You got to talk about Dawn a little bit."

Jones was back in fourth. Kellie Wells was third and, like Harper, she ran a personal best. Pearson came perilously close to losing, which would have been a serious shock given that she had won 32 races in a row until she lost to Wells at Crystal Palace three weeks ago. That, she said, had been a welcome wake-up call. "It's been a dream of mine for 12 years since I watched Cathy Freeman take gold in Sydney," Pearson said, still amazed at what she had just done. "I saw that, and I was like 'I want it'." Now she has it.

One dream made, another dashed. That is how it goes at the Olympic Games. In the morning session Liu Xiang, the 2004 Olympic champion, crashed into the first hurdle of the men's 110m heats and tumbled to the track. It brought back sickening memories of the moment four years ago, when, billed as the face of the Games, he withdrew from the event after taking his place on the blocks. Then, the shock of it silenced the stadium and stunned a nation. This time, in a wonderful if eccentric display of grit, Xiang got back up, tucked his injured right leg up underneath him, and hopped all the way to the finish.

Great Britain's Andy Turner helped him across the line. "What Liu Xiang did today reflected the true Olympic spirit," said Feng Shuyong, the performance director of the Chinese team. "Winning is not so important, participation is what matters." .......

A word of praise to the American Women's 4x100m team, who also clocked a World-best time in winning their relay!! Role reversal in the men's - all things even then!!

I've just seen the Russian Men's Volleyball team beat Brazil 3-2 in the Gold Medal match. They came from 2 sets down to beat the Selecao.. Sweet revenge for the 3-2 loss the Russian Women suffered in their quarter-final against the girls from Brazil, who yesterday successfully defended their Olympic Gold medal from 2008, beating the American Women 3-1!!

I'm watching the closing ceremony & the presentation of the medals for the men's marathon - Uganda( Stephen Kiprotich) - won gold. They're playing some great British music.

CONGRATULATIONS to the US for taking the most Gold medals. I've lost a tenner - I thought it would be China!

Well done to China for the second best haul of medals & to Britain for a very notable third place. For a small nation, we excelled in a wider range of sports than ever before.

And it was a great festival of sport, very well organised. The teams / athletes who took part all contributed to the wonderful atmosphere as did the spectators / volunteers etc. A great success, methinks.

what's your top pick of this event? my pick is definitely this one below........michael phelps seemed too good for everyone in the pool and quite comfortably lead the last 100 meters in the 200 meter butterfly (swimming)........close behind followed this gritty south african swimmer chad le clos who trailed all along for those last 100 meters just behind phelps and refused to give up........he gave his absolute everything in the last 10 meters and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in the 200th meter believe it or not, when phelps slightly eased up for a millisecond during the finish after all the good work from the beginning........these are the kind of moments which make you think that human spirit was never bigger before........